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Obama spurns Congress for overseas

President Obama has mocked Congress for blocking most of his jobs agenda. | AP Photos
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Republicans, meanwhile, are gearing up to blame Obama if the supercommittee can’t meet the deadline. GOP leaders have publicly accused the president of disengaging from the legislative process — a tactical decision that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and others have pointed to as evidence that Obama wants the supercommittee to fail.

But that appears to be more about political point-scoring. Privately, the Hill’s response to Obama has been: Please go. We don’t need you around anyway.

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“We are disappointed in the president’s lack of leadership, but I’m not sure one more instance of a lack of leadership will push anyone over the edge,” a senior Senate Republican aide said. “We’re not really shocked by these things anymore. It’s hard to be disappointed when it’s about the 50th time something like this happens.”

Even congressional Democrats, who are usually the first to call on Obama to take more ownership of an issue, aren’t clamoring for the president to step in this time around.

“The other things really required more personal attention,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who sought greater presidential involvement during the health care fight and on deficit debate earlier this year. “This is further along in terms of getting a resolution.”

Still, the difference between the Obama of 2010 and Obama of 2011 is noteworthy. Obama’s decision to stick to his plan – travel abroad to boost job creation at home – follows a string of go-it-alone actions, from his campaign-style road show on the American Jobs Act to a series of modest executive orders aimed at helping struggling homeowners, veterans and former students with debt.

Obama scuttled a trip to Australia and Indonesia in March 2010 to round up votes for the health care bill, a schedule change demanded by congressional Democrats to advance his signature piece of legislation. Public outcry over the BP spill made it impossible to be half a world away while oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico.

The West Wing doesn’t consider the current spending debates nearly as urgent.

The success of the supercommittee rests on one question, administration officials say: Will Republicans agree to higher taxes on upper-income families? The 12-member panel has been struggling for weeks — and Congress at large for months — to break an impasse on that issue. Keeping Obama, who released his deficit-reduction plan in September, around the White House for the next nine days probably won’t alter that dynamic, officials said.

“No president can change the fundamental orientation of the other party,” a senior administration official said Thursday.

Hey Politico.....Do you want to right his speeches and wipe his butt too. What a load of crap. This POTUS has no right to point his fingers at anyone. But you guys at Politico just keep kissing his arse.

Unbelievable!!!!!! With everything that is going on when we need our president the most, he takes a two weeks to go over seas. I can not understand why there are so many people that just do not see what is so obvious. Our President is taking us for a ride on our tax dollars and he has done nothing for this country except put it in a path to destruction.. Has nobody even considered impeachment before the destruction is to the point that it can not be fixed. Someday we will wake up and ask ourselves "how could we have let this happen to the best country in the world" TOO late!

Smart move. Let the treasonous Republicans hang themselves. They signed a pledge to Grover Norquist disregarding their pledge to run this country effectively and ethically. Let them drown in their corruption.